Jules Koostachin

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Jules Arita Koostachin is a Cree writer and filmmaker from Canada, most noted for her 2022 film Broken Angel (MaaShwaKan MaNiTo). [1]

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Background

A member of the Attawapiskat First Nation, she was born in Moose Factory, Ontario, and grew up in Moosonee, [2] and worked in social services before turning to filmmaking in the early 2010s. [3] She directed a number of short films, both narrative dramas and documentaries, before making Broken Angel as her feature debut.[ citation needed ]

Career

Broken Angel won the award for Best Film at the 2022 American Indian Film Festival, [4] and was longlisted for the 2022 Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award. [5]

Her documentary film WaaPaKe premiered at the 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival, [6] and has been shortlisted for the 2023 DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film. [7]

Angela's Shadow , her second narrative feature film, premiered at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival, [8] where it won the Audience Award for the Panorama program. [9]

She has also previously been announced as working on a screenplay adaptation of Richard Wagamese's novel Ragged Company. [10]

As a writer she published the poetry collection Unearthing Secrets, Gathering Truths in 2018, [11] and received a nomination in the English poetry category at the 2019 Indigenous Voices Awards. [12]

She has also had selected roles as an actress, including as Talia Spears in Bones of Crows and as the voice of Layla Mabray in the television series Molly of Denali . [10]

Personal life

Her son, Asivak Koostachin, is an actor. [1] Her twin sons, Pawaken and Tapwewin Koostachin-Chakasim, have had acting roles, notably in their mother's short film MisTik. [13]

She and her family are currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she studied at the University of British Columbia. [14]

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Angela's Shadow is a Canadian drama film, directed by Jules Arita Koostachin and released in 2024. Set in the 1930s, the film stars Sera-Lys McArthur as Angela, a pregnant woman who travels with her husband Henry to a remote Cree community to visit her former childhood nanny Mary ; after being threatened by a shadowy figure, she learns the truth about her own previously unknown Cree heritage, and begins to deal with the impact of Henry's racist response to the prospect that his child will not be racially "pure".

References

  1. 1 2 Gail Johnson, "Whistler Film Festival: Jules Arita Koostachin draws on Cree cultural practices in Broken Angel", createastir.ca, November 24, 2022.
  2. ↑ Nick Krewen, "Jules Arita Koostachin’s dramatic thriller goes to camera". Playback , November 12, 2021.
  3. ↑ Jennifer Francis, "Regina-born actor stars in Indigenous movie about domestic abuse, survival". CBC News Indigenous, October 26, 2022.
  4. ↑ "BROKEN ANGEL and POWERLANDS Win Top Awards at 2022 American Indian Film Festival". Vimooz, November 16, 2022.
  5. ↑ "JEAN-MARC VALLÉE DGC DISCOVERY AWARD LONG LIST DROPS AT VISIONARIES" Archived 2022-09-29 at the Wayback Machine . Yahoo! Movies , September 11, 2022.
  6. ↑ Haley Lewis, "‘I understand the pain’: Film explores residential schools’ intergenerational impacts". Global News, September 26, 2023.
  7. ↑ Taimur Sikander Mirza, "Women Talking leads film nominees for 2023 DGC Awards". Playback , September 20, 2023.
  8. ↑ Jamie Casemore, "Jules Arita Koostachin’s Angela’s Shadow added to VIFF slate". Playback , September 11, 2024.
  9. ↑ Jamie Casemore, "In Brief: The Chef & the Daruma wins at VIFF Audience Awards". Playback , October 17, 2024.
  10. 1 2 Dennis Ward, "Cree filmmaker Jules Koostachin believes industry now understands that Indigenous voices matter". APTN News , January 31, 2023.
  11. ↑ Zainab Amadahy, "UNEARTHING SECRETS, GATHERING TRUTHS – BROKEN POETRY". Muskrat Magazine, November 10, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Indigenous Voices Awards Finalists Announced". Publishers Weekly , May 14, 2019.
  13. ↑ Crystal St. Pierre, "Survival the subject of two films by Cree filmmaker". Windspeaker , October 28, 2022.
  14. ↑ Dana Gee, "Vancouver-based Cree writer/director Jules Koostachin delivers story of survival and hope". Vancouver Sun , March 3, 2023.
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